Ante

Ante bet is a blind bet posted by all players before cards are dealt. It is common in stud poker games, but you’ll also come across it in Texas Hold’em, especially in tournaments, where it is used in addition to the small and big blind to build the pot and boost the action.

The ante bet is posted by all players prior to cards being dealt and before the blinds. Every player posts the same amount in ante bet. For example, with blinds 500/1,000, there could be an ante in play of 100, meaning that every player puts 100 into the pot before cards are dealt.

Lately, the concept of the big blind ante has been introduced, where the player in the big blind posts the full amount to cover all antes instead of every individual player having to post every hand. This is done to speed up the action.

Looking at the above example of a 500/1,000 game, the player in the big bling would post 2,000 chips and other players would not be posting any antes. This includes the player posting 1,000 as a Big Blind and another 1,000 for the Big Blind ante.